Weekly Meal Prep | Healthy Stuffed Cabbage Rolls and Stuffed Peppers!

These are the best Healthy Stuffed Cabbage Rolls I’ve ever personally had! I Came across this recipe a few months ago, put my own twist on it, and has become a go-to meal for me! As mentioned, I have changed the original recipe up a little to better fit my personal health and fitness goals. I also simplified it a little and swapped some ingredients allowing me to reduce time in the kitchen as well as my grocery bill. 

Watch the Full Meal Prep Video!

Meal Breakdown and Nutrition

Quick note: If you haven’t watched the video, I did not weigh out the cabbage rolls or stuffed peppers but will break down the macros and nutrition below so you know the calories per serving.

For this recipe, I was able to get about 6 -7 prepped meals. One day I had 1/2 serving of cabbage rolls left so ate that with peppers to make it a full meal.

Stuffed Cabbage Rolls

Serving size – roughly 2 Cabbage Rolls

Protein(g): 41

Carbs(g): 32

Fat(g): 19

Total: 463


What you will need for this recipe!

Groceries and ingredients

  • 1 lb. Turkey Sausage
  • 1 lb. 96% Lean 4% Fat Ground Beef
  • 2 Large Eggs
  • 1 Head of Cabbage
  • 1 ½ Cups Cooked White Rice
  • 1 Large White Onion
  • 28 oz. Can Crushed Tomatoes
  • 15 oz. Can Tomato Sauce
  • 1 ½ Tbsp. Minced Garlic
  • 0.35 oz. (10g) Chopped Parsley
  • Shredded Mozzarella Cheese (part-skim/less fat)
  • Shredded Colby Jack Cheese
  • Salt & Pepper

Cooking Instructions

  1. In a large mixing bowl, add your ground beef, ground turkey, rice, about ½ can of tomato sauce, onion, egg, garlic, parsley, salt and pepper. And then mix all of the ingredients together.
  2. Now it’s time to assemble the cabbage rolls, bring a large pot of water to a boil.
  3. Immerse the cabbage head in the boiling water. Cook for 3-5 minutes or until cabbage leaves are pliable. Peel 11-12 large leaves off the cabbage. (you may need to peel a few leaves off and then add cabbage back to boiling water for a few additional minutes. The outer leaves will cook faster than the inner leaves/layers)
  4. Lay each cabbage leaf on a flat surface. (I would recommend,  using a small knife to cut a V-shaped notch to remove the thick part of the cabbage rib before adding mixture and trying to roll it up. This will make the folding/rolling much simpler)
  5. Add about 1/3 of a cup of the meat mixture in the center of a cabbage leaf. Roll the cabbage leaf around the meat mixture. Repeat with remaining meat and cabbage leaves. (I used an ice cream scooper and measurement, but you can use whatever you want, but would shape it into more of a log shape, and not a big circle/ball like I did. This will make the rolling process go much faster and smoother)
  6. Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F.
  7. Coat a 9″x13″ pan with cooking spray. Add about 1/2 of the crushed tomatoes to the bottom of the baking dish. Place the cabbage rolls seam side down in the dish. Top with remaining sauce.
  8. Cover with foil. Bake for about 60-90 minutes or until cabbage is tender and meat is cooked through.
  9. Top with a few handfuls of Mozzarella cheese, bake for an additional 5 minutes or until all the cheese is melted. And enjoy!

More about the Recipe

Credit to Sara from Dinner at the Zoo (link to recipe)! It was her original Cabbage Roll recipe I tried that inspired me to create this recipe.

I love getting creative with recipes I find online or in cookbooks! Something sounds good and I end up looking through tons of recipes online till I find the one that just sticks out to me. If it’s a new recipe, I have only made a few times I like to use the original as a basic guide or outline. Then I will look for ways to put my own touch into the meal/recipe and get creative where/when I can, or make it better suit my personal taste preferences. But that is pretty much all for this recipe, sounded good so I made it 🙂

Before you go, don’t forget to… Like, Comment, Follow!

Don’t forget to follow me on social media @waterjugfitness and check out the YouTube channel (subscribe if you aren’t already) to stay up to date on what’s to come and get notified when new content is posted!

https://www.youtube.com/c/waterjugfitness

https://www.instagram.com/waterjugfitness/

Weekly Meal Prep | His and Her Meals | Best Pepper Steak Recipe!

New Meal Prep Video! This Pepper Steak recipe is a must try, simple and delicious. In less than an hour, you’ll have 10 meals cooked, portioned, packaged, and ready to go for the week. Eat these meals for lunch, dinner, or whenever you typically eat throughout the day. Having these healthy and tasty meals ready to go, it makes sticking to/reaching your fitness goals that much easier. It’s all about consistency, day after day. I know it’s not always easy, I have fallen of the healthy eating train more than I would like over the past few months but always feel much better when I find my way back to the consistency of healthy meals ready to go 😊

The goal is to get back to more consistent meal prep videos, like the good ole days. The goal is a video weekly, but it may not always be a meal prep video. As I have started to enjoy doing non-sponsored Taste Test reviews and sharing how the products actually taste or work. But that is for a different post…

I really hope you all enjoy this meal prep video and recipe! And as always, the more feedback and comments the better! I enjoy reading them and many times I will get new recipe ideas or other cooking tips I can use based on people’s comments.

Watch the Full Meal Prep Video!

Meal Breakdown and Nutrition

Quick note: If you haven’t watched the video, you will also see how I weighed, portioned, and packaged all of the meals. And the nutrition below is calculated per meal.

My Meals

Protein(g):53

Carbs(g):35

Fat(g):21

Total:556


Her Meals

Protein(g):40

Carbs(g):28

Fat(g):16

Total:416

What you will need for this recipe

Groceries/Ingredients

  • 3-4 lbs. Petite Sirloin Steaks
  • 2 – 2 ½ lbs. New York Strip Steaks
  • 2 Red Bell Peppers
  • 2 Green Bell Peppers
  • 1 Box Success Boil-in-Bag Jasmine Rice
  • 2 ½  – 3 tbsp. Minced Garlic
  • 3 – 4 tsp. Minced Ginger or Ginger paste
  • ¾ cup Low-Sodium Soy Sauce
  • 2 – 2 ½ tbsps. Sugar
  • 2 – 2 ½ tbsps. Cornstarch
  • Salt and Pepper (to taste)

Healthy Food Swaps: Based on your fitness goals

Can I make it more low-carb? Of course!

The simplest way to do this would be to cut out the rice and just go vegetable crazy lol. But seriously, you could easily double up on the veggies and cut the rice out completely. Below are some additional veggies I think would go really well with this recipe, see below:

  • Mushrooms
  • Broccoli
  • Snap/Snow Peas
  • White Onion
  •  Carrots
  • Honestly, so many more. Whatever veggies you want to add, go for it!

If you are still wanting that rice consistency you could look at just swapping the rice for Cauliflower Rice.

That is the only rice alternative product I have really tried, but here is an article with some other options you could potentially sub in for the rice to keep the consistency but not all the carbs.

What about some other good Beef/Steak choices you could go with?

And obviously, keep in mind, each cut will have a different nutritional value, some could significantly alter the calories in your meals, for better or worse. Below I included some alternative cuts of steak that you could try with this recipe. I have made this recipe with a few different ones, and my biggest piece of advice is to not overcook your steak, no matter the cut you go with. If you do, you will be at the table all day and night trying to chew it. This is especially true for the leaner cuts of steak; fattier steaks tend to be a little more forgiving if you overcook them.

Leaner Cuts of Beef/Steak

  • Sirloin Tip Side Steak
  • Top Round Steak
  • Eye of Round Steak
  • Bottom Round Steak
  • Top Sirloin Steak

Fattier Cuts of Beef/Steak

  • Skirt or Flank Steak
  • Chuck Steak
  • New York Strip Steak

Let’s wrap things up!

That’s all I have for this week’s meal prep and post. As I continue to do more of these, the format, style, and layout may change slightly but again the main goal for me is to just keep things simple and be consistent. I will often try to wait till I think it’s perfect before posting but just ends up having the reverse effect of doing all this work and then never posting lol. I’m sure some people relating can relate, and that’s why I am posting more… Because it’s not perfect, there are many things I want to change about this post and even the video, but I am happy with it and very happy to be getting back into the meal prep world. I’ve been out of the game way to long.

Don’t forget to follow me on social media and check out my YouTube channel (subscribe if you aren’t already) for updates on new videos!

https://www.youtube.com/c/waterjugfitness

https://www.instagram.com/waterjugfitness/

Weekly Meal Prep – Healthy Chicken Tortilla Soup and Steak Bowl

Hey Everyone!

I’m excited to be bringing back the MEAL PREP blog posts. These posts will give you a little more insight into my meal preps, from the groceries, to cooking, and  then finally packaging them up.

Check out this weeks simple and delicious meal prep!

For access to the full post,  check out my Exclusive Members Blog.

Groceries (Click HERE for the entire list of groceries)
– Chicken Breasts ($18.56)
– 2 Packages Strawberries ($7.98)
– Blueberries ($3.99)
– Jalapeno Pepper ($0.25)
– Chicken Broth ($1.49)

Chicken Tortilla Soup Recipe (Click HERE for my modified recipe)
Original recipe I found online http://www.geniuskitchen.com/recipe/amazing-chicken-tortilla-soup-108231
(I scaled up the original recipe and made almost double the amount becuase I wanted to be sure I had enough for the week.)
– 3-4 Tsp. Extra Virgin Olive Oil
– 1 – 1 1/2 Medium Onion
– 1/2 – 1 Tbsp. Minced Garlic (Forgot to add this)

Cooking Instructions
For this meal prep I used my brand new Cosori multi-cooker. It’s amazing, so simple to use and reduces the need for additional pots and pans, makes clean much easier and quicker. I will create additional videos with the cooker but lets just get into the recipe.

If you don’t have multi-cooker like the one I’m using, it’s not a problem, you can still make this recipe. You will need a cooking skillet and a slow-cooker instead though. Thinking about it, you could probably also use a large cooking pot as well if you wanted… decisions, decisions.
1. Prep the chicken breasts, meaning, trim off any excess fat or skin you can see.
2. After the chicken is trimmed, move it over to a baking dish/pan.
3. Then add some simple seasoning, I just went with salt & pepper. (You can add any additional seasoning you would like.
4. Bake the chicken at … (Click Here for additional cooking instructions)

To view the entire post and meal prep, check out my Exclusive Members Blog.

Simple Breakfast Egg Recipe

Start your day off right with this quick and simple breakfast! Whether you’re trying to lose weight or gain muscle a healthy breakfast is extremely important.

Ingredients

  • 2 Eggs
  • 1 Slice 100% Whole Wheat Bread
  • Garlic Salt
  • Black Pepper
  • Spray Butter
  • 1 tbsp. Extra Virgin Olive Oil
  • 1 Mini Wholly Guacamole
  • Coconut Oil Cooking Spray

Cooking Instructions

  1. Place cooking pan on the stove and set it to a medium high heat.
  2. Spray cooking pan evenly with Coconut Oil cooking spray.
  3. After about 5 minutes, once the pan is hot, crack 2 eggs in pan.
  4. Add desired amount of pepper.
  5. Cook eggs for 2 minutes, then flip.
  6. Cook for an additional 2 minutes.
  7. Remove eggs from stove and place on a plate.
  8. With the stove still on and hot, add 1 tbsp. of Extra Virgin Olive Oil to pan.
  9. Add a few sprays of butter to one side of the bread.
  10. Place the bread butter side down on the pan. (Bread should soak up all the Extra Virgin Olive Oil)
  11. After 30 – 45 seconds flip.
  12. Add desired amount of Garlic Salt and flip again.
  13. Cook for an additional 1 minute.
  14. Remove bread from the stove and place under the eggs.
  15. Spread the container of Wholly Guacamole evenly over eggs.
  16. Pair this with a tangerine and that’s it!

Total Calories: 490
Protein: 18g
Carbs: 33g
Fat: 35g

Have a breakfast recipe you make or really enjoy? Please leave a comment below and I would love to check it out. Always looking for new healthy recipes. Now be sure to go check out the Water Jug Fitness YouTube Channel for more healthy recipes. Also, go follow WaterJugFitness on Instagram and Twitter for daily fitness tips.

Delicious Homemade Protein Bars

Do you often find yourself snacking on chips, candy or other unhealthy treats throughout your day? I’ve been there, it’s easy to fall into this trap. What if I told you I have a delicious homemade protein bar to curb your cravings? These bars are so good you’re not going to believe they can be healthy for you. This recipe will have all of your friends, family, and in my case coworkers asking for more. Another great thing about this recipe is it only requires 4 products you can get from almost any grocery store and no baking required. I hope you’re as excited to try these as I am to share them!

Ingredients

  • 34 oz. Mixed Nuts
  • 1/2 Cup PB2 (Powdered Peanut Butter)
  • 5 oz. Reduced Sugar Craisins
  • 1/2 Cup Honey

Cooking Utensils

Cooking Instructions

  1. In a large mixing bowl combine the mixed nuts, PB2, craisins and honey.
  2. With a spatula, mix the ingredients together thoroughly.
  3. Cover a baking pan with wax paper.
  4. Pour mixed ingredients onto the baking pan.
  5. With a spatula, spread and press the ingredients evenly.
  6. Place the baking pan in the freezer for 1 hour.
  7. Remove the baking pan from freezer, cut and enjoy.

It’s important to store these protein bars in the freezer until you’re ready to eat them. If you leave them out or store them in the refrigerator they will not hold together and become extremely messy. I had to learn this hard way.

Do you make your own protein bars or have a protein bar recipe you really like? Please leave a comment below and I would love to check it out. Always looking for new healthy recipes. Now be sure to go check out the Water Jug Fitness YouTube Channel for more healthy recipes. Also, go follow WaterJugFitness on Instagram and Twitter for daily fitness tips.

Cheat Meals

What’s a cheat meal?

How often should I eat cheat meals?

Should I schedule cheat meals into my routine?

These questions are very typical when it comes to cheat meals. Odds are you have read or heard many different opinions around the best approach. It can be overwhelming, I know, I’ve been there. So first and foremost, what is a cheat meal? To put it simply, cheat meals generally contain little to no nutritional value and contain large amounts of excess sugar, carbs, and fats. You could also call this junk food. Still not quite sure about what qualifies as a cheat?

Common Cheat Foods

  • Pizza
  • Candy
  • Donuts
  • Burgers
  • Fries
  • Soda
  • Ice Cream
  • Cookies
  • Etc…

Hopefully your starting to get the picture.

When To Eat Cheat Meals

Now that you know what is considered a cheat meal or cheat food lets talk about when to eat them.  Cheat meals, if used properly can be extremely beneficial for meeting your fitness goals. So you’re telling me, I can eat cheat meals and still get fit? You got it! It’s important to understand though if your not eating clean healthy foods on a regular basis, 80 – 90% of the time cheat meals will not be beneficial.  The reason cheat meals are beneficial for those who eat clean 80 – 90% of the time is because our bodies produce a protein called Leptin. Leptin is produced by fat tissue and aids in regulating appetite and energy.  After 72 hours, your body’s Leptin levels will drop significantly causing your metabolism and fat burning capabilities slow. So go ahead and eat that cheat meal because once you do your Leptin levels will return to normal and you can get back to burning fat. Typically, my cheat meals fall on a Wednesday and Saturday or Sunday. I will generally have 2 to 3 cheat meals a week but that’s just me.

Balance Is Key

You now know about cheat meals and when to eat them. The last point I want to talk about is maintaining balance between cheat meals and clean eating. As I said previously, if you aren’t eating clean 80 – 90% of the time cheat meals will not be beneficial for you in regards to reaching your fitness goals.  The key is to start slow and work your way up to consistently eating clean on a regular basis. Many of the people who don’t stick with it try to go 100% clean eating and once they don’t see any results after the first week they quit. Well the sad fact is one week of healthy eating and exercise won’t make up for years of bad eating habits. You have to remember you didn’t get the way you are in one week so why do you expect to lose it all in one week. Sorry folks, it’s not going to happen. Give it time, stay consistent, and eat healthy foods. Results will come!

From all the articles and videos I’ve watched one thing stands out, one healthy meal won’t make you skinny just as one unhealthy meal won’t make you fat. It’s all about consistency; eat healthy, train hard, and have a cheat meal when you need it.

#WaterJugFitness

References
http://www.bodybuilding.com/fun/5-ways-cheat-meals-can-improve-your-body.html